Benjamin Barnes asked Zeyn Joukhadar:

In the last 2 years I have read both Map of Salt and Stars, and Thirty Names of Night. They are beautiful books with deep histories and emotional bonds. Your prose flows so naturally with a touch of the supernatural within deeply personal journeys. What draws you to writing with parallel protagonists across many years in parallel yet different stories?

Zeyn Joukhadar Thank you! One reason is that I'm deeply interested in revealing the legacies of history (both societal and personal) within the present, as well as the ways that these histories inform the formation of one's sense of self, particularly for racialized, queer, and gender-oppressed people. Another reason is that I'm invested in engaging with storytelling techniques that take their roots from outside the Western literary canon, including traditional oral storytelling originating in the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region, and these kinds of approaches often employ multiple story threads, non-linear structures, and other techniques that I choose to explore in my work.

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